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We rode across the bridge tonight. Pat was grazing his gelding and went first. Ariel was like ho de do and ambled across. We rode around Pat and his horse while discussing politics, then Ariel and I soloed back across and did trot work on the grass. She’s kind of barn sour by herself and is much better if someone else is out.

It is a nice night, in the upper 60s and cloudy. I’m not an outdoor kinda rider and was surprised that we were the only ones riding outside.

I’m very proud of me.

Well done

Nice!!

Give yourself a nice pat on the back.

I'm proud of you too! Nice job, and good girl Ariel!

Good job, Paula, but you had me worried with the ER on the end of "braver".

Good job. I would be very proud too.

I have had bridge anxiety and can certainly understand. Way back when when I was just learning to ride, I had a horse back off a bridge. Not what you want to do . It was just a small bridge over a canal and I don't know what I did (or didn't do) but she stopped just over the bridge and threw it in reverse...and not straight needless to say. She backed off but got one hind leg hung up on the bridge tread so I was able to step off which was way good for me. However, she was stuck and had the leg that was stuck shoved up under her chest and her front legs were folded under and it was making it harder for her to breath in such a position. I, in my teenaged wisdom had no idea what to do so ran up to my neighbor's house and thank goodness Dale (a fireman) was home and ran back out with me to assess the issue. He finally determined the safest thing to do was to grab her tail and give a good lift to see if that gave her enough relief to push herself up. The other hind leg was just dangling over the canal. Thank God, that worked. She had some abrasions and lacerations on her back legs but healed up fast and wasn't timid about the bridge.

Of course, that mentally damaged me somewhat. After that I was pretty hesitant and could alway imagine much worse things happening. But I think for the most part I am over it. We have a bridge on the property where I board and I now just point and shoot. Focus way on the other side and boy howdy, she had better march over...stay very on task .

Susan

Good job Paula and Ariel !

Good on you! Don't forget to ride 'with purpose' each time you cross the bridge. And focusing ahead to the other side of the crossing keeps your vibe going forward and not stressing about the bridge itself.

One barn where I boarded had acres of wonderful trails, which included a large concrete bridge across a creek. Not super high, but one that cars could drive across. After my horse and I had been over and back on a variety of different occasions (without incident), he got a notion on one trip that he simply could not and would not cross the bridge. I said YES he said NO. He spun around and we walked backwards in rapid fire pace across the entire bridge to the other side. We then continued on our trail trek without incident. Believe it or not, I can't remember if we crossed back over the bridge backwards on our return trip to barn, but there was never a problem with it again. YMMV.

Look BEYOND where you want to go. Don't stare down at that bridge, mud puddle, etc unless that's where you want the trip to end.

texsuze wrote:I said YES he said NO. He spun around and we walked backwards in rapid fire pace across the entire bridge to the other side.

I do this all the time with Maia. Some days she won't walk past, let alone through, a mud puddle. No biggy, we splash right through backwards. Same applies for stepping across the white/yellow lines on the asphalt, etc.